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What It Means to Invest in Women

I’m a big believer of putting our money where our heart is. I find that in doing so, we experience much more meaning from the money we do spend and invest, which also helps us save more. We can do this by:

Aligning our spending with our values

Giving our money to causes that we feel passionate about

Investing in things that matter to us

I attended an amazing luncheon last week where we had a conversation about women and investing. I had the great pleasure of meeting Sallie Krawcheck, Joe Keefe and other incredible people in the investment industry. I have been following Sallie and her career since she spoke at the Wharton Women conference when I was in college. I never forgot her speech because it was so honest, real and inspiring. Nothing has changed!

What does that mean exactly? Each company included in the index has at least two women on its Board of Directors. Companies are also rated based on other criteria including women in executive management, if they have a woman CEO / CFO and if they sign on to the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

Here’s the best part… Investing in women not only increases the number of women we see in the Board room and in executive management but we also get to make more money. Studies show that companies with greater gender diversity actually perform better. Here are some facts:

Fortune 500 companies with three or more corporate directors who are women (in at least four out of five years) outperformed those with zero women directors by 84% return on sales, 60% on return on invested capital and 46% on return on equity (Catalyst).

Venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley run by women had annual revenues that were 12% higher than those run by men (Illuminate Ventures).

I left the luncheon last week inspired and excited about the opportunity to invest my money in something that really matters to me, all the while earning a better return. If you are interested in aligning your values and your investments, stay tuned for more information on all the ways you can get involved. I am also going to bring some investment experts on as featured speakers during the Savvy Investor Course which launches on February 16th.